Standard 10 - Teachers are connected with other teachers and the community.
The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support pupil learning and well being and acts with integrity, fairness and in an ethical manner.
Rationale: This web site is something I created for the families of the students in my classroom, as part of my Educational Telecommunications course. My goal was to create a resource that would help parents better understand what we do in the classroom to help students learn, as well as give them some ideas for things that they could do at home to help support and reinforce classroom instruction. While this website did not have any impact on student learning that I could measure, I hope that it helped some parents get a better idea of what their children were learning, and ways that they could support that learning at home.
As I developed the web site, I learned a great deal about web site design. While the course provided me with the basic knowledge needed to create a web site, I did a great deal of reading on my own to help further my understanding of web site development. I learned about web design standards and explored issues related to web site accessibility for persons with special needs (e.g. vision-impaired). I learned how to use Dreamweaver, as well as how to hand-code web sites with HTML and CSS. I learned about the differences between accessing information on a web site vs. the printed page, and I learned more about basic principles of web design.
In addition to developing my technical competence, developing this web site had a big impact on my development as a teacher. It prompted me to reconsider the relationship between home and school and identify and evaluate the assumptions I held related to that relationship. It helped me realize that there are many different ways to reach out to parents. Instead of assuming that some parents aren’t interested or don’t care, I should look at other ways of communicating with those parents, that will help them feel more connected to the classroom and our learning community.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND DISPOSITIONS
10.K.2 The teacher understands how factors in the students’ environment outside of school (e.g. family circumstances, community environments, health, and economic conditions) may influence students’ lives and learning.
Family involvement is an important part of any child’s academic development. In my experience, when a child’s family acts in ways that value what we do at school (e.g. good attendance, helping with homework, attending conferences) that child is more invested in school and more motivated to be an active participant in the educational process. My job as an educator is to foster the school-family relationship, and communication is the most important component of that relationship. This web site was created with the goal of communicating information about learning to read, to the parents and caregivers of my students.
10.S.4 The teacher establishes respectful and productive relationships with parents and guardians from diverse home and community situations and seeks cooperative partnerships in support of student learning and well being.
Helping students become successful readers requires a strong partnership between home and school. One part of establishing that strong partnership is helping parents and caregivers understand the process of learning to read. While I do my best to share this information, the modes of communication I typically use (i.e. newsletters, parent meetings) don’t reach everyone. This website is another way that I can share this information with those parents and caregivers that might not receive this information through other channels. The more ways I am able to reach out to the families of my students, the more likely I am to establish respectful and productive relationships with all of those families.
10.D.1 The teacher values and appreciates all aspects of a child’s experience.
I understand that my students learn in all different ways and plan my instruction to meet the needs of all different kinds of students. I also understand that the parents and caregivers of my students also have different needs, in terms of communication between home and school. While some parents might prefer chatting with me before school, other parents might prefer reading something in a newsletter, and still others might prefer reading information on a web site. Increasing the number of ways in which I can communicate important information to my students’ families, shows that I value and appreciate many different kinds of families and how those families relate to school.
Standard 10 - Teachers are connected with other teachers and the community.
The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support pupil learning and well being and acts with integrity, fairness and in an ethical manner.
Evidence: Kinder Readers Web Site
KinderReaders
Rationale: This web site is something I created for the families of the students in my classroom, as part of my Educational Telecommunications course. My goal was to create a resource that would help parents better understand what we do in the classroom to help students learn, as well as give them some ideas for things that they could do at home to help support and reinforce classroom instruction. While this website did not have any impact on student learning that I could measure, I hope that it helped some parents get a better idea of what their children were learning, and ways that they could support that learning at home.
As I developed the web site, I learned a great deal about web site design. While the course provided me with the basic knowledge needed to create a web site, I did a great deal of reading on my own to help further my understanding of web site development. I learned about web design standards and explored issues related to web site accessibility for persons with special needs (e.g. vision-impaired). I learned how to use Dreamweaver, as well as how to hand-code web sites with HTML and CSS. I learned about the differences between accessing information on a web site vs. the printed page, and I learned more about basic principles of web design.
In addition to developing my technical competence, developing this web site had a big impact on my development as a teacher. It prompted me to reconsider the relationship between home and school and identify and evaluate the assumptions I held related to that relationship. It helped me realize that there are many different ways to reach out to parents. Instead of assuming that some parents aren’t interested or don’t care, I should look at other ways of communicating with those parents, that will help them feel more connected to the classroom and our learning community.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND DISPOSITIONS
10.K.2 The teacher understands how factors in the students’ environment outside of school (e.g. family circumstances, community environments, health, and economic conditions) may influence students’ lives and learning.
Family involvement is an important part of any child’s academic development. In my experience, when a child’s family acts in ways that value what we do at school (e.g. good attendance, helping with homework, attending conferences) that child is more invested in school and more motivated to be an active participant in the educational process. My job as an educator is to foster the school-family relationship, and communication is the most important component of that relationship. This web site was created with the goal of communicating information about learning to read, to the parents and caregivers of my students.
10.S.4 The teacher establishes respectful and productive relationships with parents and guardians from diverse home and community situations and seeks cooperative partnerships in support of student learning and well being.
Helping students become successful readers requires a strong partnership between home and school. One part of establishing that strong partnership is helping parents and caregivers understand the process of learning to read. While I do my best to share this information, the modes of communication I typically use (i.e. newsletters, parent meetings) don’t reach everyone. This website is another way that I can share this information with those parents and caregivers that might not receive this information through other channels. The more ways I am able to reach out to the families of my students, the more likely I am to establish respectful and productive relationships with all of those families.
10.D.1 The teacher values and appreciates all aspects of a child’s experience.
I understand that my students learn in all different ways and plan my instruction to meet the needs of all different kinds of students. I also understand that the parents and caregivers of my students also have different needs, in terms of communication between home and school. While some parents might prefer chatting with me before school, other parents might prefer reading something in a newsletter, and still others might prefer reading information on a web site. Increasing the number of ways in which I can communicate important information to my students’ families, shows that I value and appreciate many different kinds of families and how those families relate to school.
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